1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a miniature right angle coaxial cable connector for interconnecting a coaxial cable to a printed circuit board. More specifically, the present invention relates to a connector for such an application comprising a pair of mateable connector units, one of which is terminating the coaxial cable, and the other establishing electrical contact with printed circuit board circuitry.
2. The Prior Art
In many commercial applications, as well as many test applications, it is desirable to feed a coaxial RF signal line through to printed circuit board circuitry. Because of the stringent performance requirements, and the relatively limited space constraints, a suitable coaxial connector for coaxial cable to printed circuit board circuitry interconnection has been difficult to achieve, for such a connector must be miniature in scale, yet must meet adequate performance requirements, at least to a frequency of 2 GHZ.
Heretofore, most coaxial cable connectors for miniature applications were of a multi-piece design, with assembly of component parts of the connector being somewhat cumbersome. Typically, available connectors comprise two right angle mating units, with one unit being intended for printed circuit board mount, and the other for the termination of a coaxial cable. Since each mating connector unit must be of an overall right angle profile, the difficulty has been in loading similarly profiled contact members into respective mating unit shells having the aforesaid right angle profile. No convenient way heretofore has been achieved for convenient loading of contact members into miniature right angle connector shells.
The industry has therefore been in need of a miniature right angle coaxial cable connector for interconnecting a coaxial cable to printed circuit board circuitry. Such a connector must be inexpensive to produce, of a general miniature scale, and must meet substantial RF performance requirements. Moreover, assembly of such a connector must be readily achievable, minimizing intricate or elaborate assembly techniques or time intensive multiple soldering operations.